And for those who have not visited the city before, there is a very good (and inexpensive, especially compared to the ship) wine store in the Ferry Building for purchasing cruise wines.

We're allowed to bring wine onboard the ship?

I think Mrs. Bruin wants to meet up with her parents on Saturday morning so I don't know if I'll be able to attent the 11 am round up.

Officially, Princess allows one bottle of wine or champagne per person. They usually charge corkage if you have them open it in the dining room, but there are ways around that.

Then there was the 13-day cruise where we brought 9 bottles on board...

even though i am not on this cruise, i still follow the thread. (wish i was able to sail with you all). anyway, Princess has been known to allow wine in varying quantities. i sailed with my kids to the Mex Rivera and carried 7 bottles of wine. only two of us were of drinking age so that averaged just over 3 bottles each. there was a guy ahead of us in the security line who had a whole case of wine still in the crate style cardboard box.

we also took aboard soda, sparkling water and lemonades. yeah, we had a whole beverage shop between the four of us. being able to carry wine along with you for a cruise is one of the BIG reasons i like sailing with Princess.

We usually each take about one bottle for every two or three nights of the cruise, and it's never been a problem. However, you never know if they'll enforce the one bottle per person.

BTW: Scott says our cruise is fully booked!

Punki and I have brought multiple bottles of wine aboard, and even a full case of Perrier. I think that Princess has a bigger concern about hard booze.

We're looking forward to the meet up on Saturday morning.

I'll be screeching into town at the last minute and am looking forward to sail-away on the "secret" deck! See you all soon!

Mrs Bruin and I have arrived in SFO!

We'll miss the preboard meet up but look forward to seeing people on the secret deck at departure.

Such a shame the weather turned. Hopefully the wind will die down the next few days. I look forward to reports and pics. Bon voyage!

Mahasamatman,

Thanks for organizing the cruise. We really enjoyed it except for the common complaint about the band in the Wheelhouse bar playing too much "listening" music instead of dance music.

Good company and good times at dinner with the group. I kept thinking that we should have taken a group photo, but realized after our last dinner that it didn't happen.

It was a pleasure meeting linire and Minnesota Bruin + 1, and mecabq + 1 for the first time, plus sailing again with mahasamatman + 1 and abbydancer + 1.

boxo, the weather cleared for a sunny departure under the Golden Gate, then cloudy and drizzly on Sunday at sea, Monday the clouds parted as we entered the Columbia River to dock at Astoria and spent the day in the sun, Tuesday was clear and sunny with a glorious entry into Victoria with the view of the Olympic Mountains across the Straits of Juan de Fuca. And the entry into Vancouver on Wednesday morning was also clear and sunny. I always love sailing under the Lion's Gate bridge into Burrard Inlet.

All in all, a fun cruise. Too bad we had to go back to work for the rest of the week instead of staying on the ship and continuing onto Alaska.

When do we start planning for the next one?

Hunki

Thanks to everyone for a great time, and especially to mahasamatman for planning. It was a pleasure to meet you all, and I look forward to doing it again!

We're already booked on the 24 September sailing of the Coral from Vancouver to San Francisco...

Thanks to everyone for showing up. It was great to meet linire, Minnesota Bruin + 1, and mecabq + 1, and to see our "old friends" once again. I'm glad you got to take advantage of our weather luck as the skies parted and we had such great sunny skies.

I send my thanks also to mahasamatman for organizing the cruise! It was great to meet everyone and I had a wonderful time. I also look forward to doing it again!

Thanks to everyone for helping Mrs. Bruin and me get acclimated to cruising!

Although, I don't think we'll be hitting "elite" anytime soon, we are starting to look at some warm weather cruises for 2012.